ABSTRACT
The cultural knowledge about female playing that a spectator, actor, or playwright carried to the “all-male” stage was enormous. Outside the professional theatre, the implications of women’s performance are only just beginning to emerge, with some scholars probing women’s impact on popular culture and providing frames for studying female performance. Mirabella also discovers a world in which the critics of mountebank performances took particularly virulent aim at women, describing them as frauds and whores who deserve whipping, or worse. The innamorata, or elegant young maid in love, became the focus of the greatest expansion; at the same time a handful of women who played the innamorata became leaders of troupes. Many jests recorded in the manuscript were told to Le Strange by his female kin and friends, or concern women performing physical or verbal tricks, or include women as internal jester figures.
